I have installed Ubuntu Server on a VM and given it 100 Gb of disk and 2Gb of RAM. I also installed GNOME. My primary reason for the installation was to install a bunch of different NoSQL databases and check them out. Since my "normal" platform is Windows 7 as was recommended in "Seven Databases in Seven Weeks" it seems easier to have a VM running Linux than having all the utilities to make Windows look like Linux.

Anyway now that I have it installed I am finding that the apps run from the GNOME shell are very slow. Maybe it is just GNOME or Ubuntu-desktop but the applications seem very slow. If the slowness is attributed to the GUI how do I remove them? Once I remove them how is the best way to install various app software? As the only reason that I installed the GUI stuff was to be able to browse to a site and download. If that is possible without the slow GUI then that may be one other reason to remove GNOME and Ubuntu-desktop.

Sorry if these questions are newbie type questions but as Linux is not new to me, the whole Ubuntu distribution is.

If I use apt-get how do I specify the software that I want. Like for the NoSql case I would like Cassandra, Neo4j, MongoDB, HBase, and Riak. Once I have it set up with a GUI/desktop how do I uninstall the desktop(s) and go back to the terminal prompt?
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Kevin BurtonOct 31 '12 at 20:07

All of the sudo commands that you suggest involve a basic terminal window. How do I get back to that? Can I remove what I have installed (both to recover diskspace and to set new boot/login parameters)? Or should I just start the installation of the VM over again?
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Kevin BurtonOct 31 '12 at 20:31

Sorry, I've never uninstalled gnome or any other desktop in ubuntu server, I could be wrong, but you can try just uninstalling the packages and booting the system normally.
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Evandro SilvaOct 31 '12 at 20:36

If you don't mind two more questions. One, the packaging aside, how do you uninstall something that is installed? Two, If I am to use apt-get to install can I get a list of what can be installed and its version? Thanks again.
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Kevin BurtonOct 31 '12 at 21:42